How to Build a Trellis

Design your trellis in proportion to its surroundings, keeping distances from architectural features—such as the eaves or windows on the house—consistent. When sizing the frame's uprights, remember that they double as the posts, so they must be long enough to be buried deeper than the frost line in your region and still leave a 1-foot clearance between the frame and the ground (for cleanup). For stability, you should also size them so that you'll be burying one-third of the trellis's total height.

Using a circular saw guided by a Speed square, cut the 2x4s to the lengths needed for the uprights and the horizontal members of each frame. Using a circular saw guided by a straightedge, cut panels from the lattice that are sized to fit inside the frames.